A short list of random stuff that might interest you *UPDATED*

You heard about Jumanah Imad Albahri, the Muslim young woman who found unexpected fame when she stated to David Horowitz that she was for Hezbollah’s genocidal policy against all Jews. Uncomfortable in the spotlight, Albahri has now written a response explaining how she was tricked and misunderstood. (H/t: Brutally Honest.) I was going to fisk it, but Robert Spencer already did, and he did a much better job than I would have. UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg looks beyond the genocidal student and examines the state- and federally-funded University that blithely lets this type of ideological poison sit untouched.

When I was young, I rode bikes with carefree abandon. Now that I’m older, I’ve discovered fear. It seems that I’m not the only one. Riding bikes is dangerous. This happens to be a subject of particular interest to me, because I live in a part of the world where bike riding isn’t just a means of transportation, it’s a political statement. This means that bicyclists frequently pretend that they own the road. This is, of course, yet another example of illogic from the Left, because physics dictates that the cars, which are much bigger and much faster, still own the road, no matter the driver’s and the biker’s political beliefs.

And if you like random, you’ll enjoy this blog site, which is a compilation of Top Ten Lists. Check it out. It’s lots of fun. You may not agree with the conclusions, but you’ll still have a lot of fascinating factoids enter your brain.

The Anchoress ruminates on the wussification of the American workplace — which is pretty much a metaphor for the wussification of America. I’m all for manners, charity and kindness. Somehow, though, these these virtues managed to get entangled with and destroyed by political correctness.

And how shall we transform the liar/muslim/fanatics…looks like appeasement from where I sit. I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around the link below (a mosque at ground zero). Americans have couscous (you know what I really mean) for brains. Can so many be so clueless or will today’s primaries and November’s elections turn it around in time and if not – what will stop the madness that consumes logic and reality. The election of 2000 made it very clear just how divided we are politically. September 11, 2001 momentarily bonded us and then the clueless became bored with terrorism and decided that going green or organic was so much more ‘hip‘ and not nearly as messy as dead and wounded soldiers defending their very right to ignore it all. The fools and their ideas of social equality will have their heirs wearing burkahs in the garden of evil – quite a legacy. The fools live in the moment as Islam plans by the century.

There was a placard at a Tea Party event that read something like, ‘our parents/grandparents came to America from Europe – where do we go now’. Seems more and more like a loaded question that needs to be answered.

I live in Pacifica, not far enough south of San Francisco. Today, we had the Tour of California bicycle race come through town. It entailed closing southbound Highway 1, the town’s main north-south roadway, for a couple of hours and stationing police every quarter-mile or so.

Having viewed San Francisco’s success with the “Critical Mass” demonstrations, the bicycling phenomenon qualifies as one of my tyrannies of the minorities. The politicians fall all over themselves inventing and granting rights without responsibilities to another determined minority. One never hears anything about the cost of marking all those bike lanes just the whining of the obviously morally superior riders. The only nice thing I can say about them is that I don’t think that they have cost the taxpayers as much as the idiots who decided to cut all the curbs for wheelchair-ers.

SADIE

My post #2 has a postscript – We’ re paying for it!!! The first two on the list are both UN agencies.

The estimated cost for the 13 story building is $100 million dollars. According to page 8 of the ASMA website financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 they have “temporarily restricted net assets” as follows:
UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) $ 53,664
MDG3 Fund (Millennium Development Goals) $481,942
Hunt Alternatives Fund $15,000
Carnegie Corporation of N.Y. $ 144,752
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund $50,000
Qatar government fund $576,312http://www.weeklyblitz.net/724/spitting-in-the-face-of-everyone-murdered-on-9-11

As an avid bicyclist (at least I was until I was the victim of a hit and run) I disagree with your statement – “riding bikes is dangerous.” Riding a bicycle in itself is not dangerous; However, riding a bicycle like one owns the road, or going at a speed in which one cannot fully control the bike, or any other stupid behaviour is dangerous. Which is what I suspect you really meant.

As far a Critical Mass goes they are simply thugs, terrorists, or whatever words one prefers. In NYC there was recently a case (film on youtube) in which a police officer “shoved” a Critical Mass rider. Speaking as a bicycle enthusiast I am glad that the police office was not found guilty of any wrong-doing except making a false report about the incident.

In the area where I ride my bicycle there are many multi-use trails. Unfortunately, they are not all connnected so one must sometimes use the roadways to get from one to the next. I think it is quite interesting that I can, as a cyclist, tell which drivers are also bike riders themselves as they show a lot of respect for the bike riders along the side of the road. I can also tell which drivers think that bikes shouldn’t be anywhere near them (those drivers act as if they own the road) Sorry, Book, I know that you are just using that as an expression; But no one owns the road. Both bike riders and drivers need to obey the rules of the road and show respect for others. That should be common sense. but we all know common sense isn’t really all that common.

Thanks for the bicyclist’s perspective. You’re right that no one “owns” the road, but I can say with some authority that, where I live, a lot of the bikes seem to think that they do. On a very curvy, low-visibility street, the foolish ones can be found riding down the center of the lane going 15 miles an hour. I’m not a nervous driver, but these guys and gals terrify me. As I drive down that road, I chant to myself “bike, bike, bike,” so that I’m constantly vigilant for the possibility that, as I round a corner, there may be a slow-moving, incredibly vulnerable bicyclist smack in the middle of the lane.

The same holds true when driving in downtown San Francisco. Too many of the bicyclists simply don’t follow the rules of the road. They run lights and stop signs, they weave in and out of traffic, and worst of all, when I’m signaling to make a right turn, some of them still race up on my right side and try to beat me through the intersection. It’s infuriating because it’s terrifying. If I hit the fool who does that, it may be his fault, but I’m still the one with blood on my hands.

That’s why I’m rather hostile to the bike crowd in my neck of the woods. While no one really “owns” the road, too many of them think that they actually do.

If bikes riders routinely followed the rules of the road, I’d truly have no problem with them.

It is a high risk activity. All high risk activities, like bungee cord jumping, jumping out airplanes, skate boarding up a 50 meter curve, or what not qualify.

Whether they are dangerous or not is relative. Whether they are high risk activities, isn’t a matter of partial reference.

People like to slum around in what they perceive to be lower class or dangerous and exotic locales. This is high risk behavior, because these people specifically do them because it has additional risks compared to alternatives. A specific thing doesn’t have to be dangerous, but high risk behavior is by definition a self-selected danger.

Back in the day, those from a higher social class will go to places where the lower social classes are and act like they own the place. They go there for excitement, a change of scenery, and to feel good about themselves, because they can leave such disaster zones while the normal occupants cannot.

Aristocratic lordlings would go around pubs, where they don’t know the rules, and act like it is their personal castle and land. It isn’t. So when they inevitably offend people by breaking the local rules (not laws), they’ll get attacked. Now if you tell them this, they’ll say that their Father will protect them because they Have Money and Influence. They rely upon this bulwark as protection.

Now Critical Mass are the aristocrats. They rely upon institutional protections. Up against reality, they would get splattered because they nor their aristocratic brothers in arms, could ever physically overpower or out gun the local denizens if such people really wanted the slummies dead.

Grim mentioned that if his car was surrounded by Critical Mass and they were beating on the windows and doors, scaring his children, there would be something important to use.
The accelerator.